The Best Science & Technology Biographies & Memoirs 2025

1. One Giant Leap: Neil Armstrong's Stellar American Journey, (Paperback)

On July 20, 1969, the whole world stopped. It was the day when a man who grew up on a farm without electricity announced, "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." But the world never knew how truly dangerous this quest was. Armstrong and his crew's extraordinary mission was a long, complex chain of events, at least 50 percent likely to snap at one delicate point or another and end in failure or worse. As the mission unfolded, those in the know about the daunting task the astronauts faced held their breath. The President of the United States, Richard Nixon, ordered their eulogy prepared for him to read on national television. In this, the first-ever biography of Neil Armstrong, Leon Wagener explores the man whose walk on the moon is still compared to humankind's progenitor's crawl out of the primordial ooze---and whose retreat back to a farm in his native Ohio soon after the last ticker-tape confetti fell has left him looked upon as a reclusive hermit ever since. This is the true story of a national hero whose lifelong quest to walk on the moon truly mirrors our best selves. He's an American who daily braved incredible danger over a long career and finally broke free of Earth's surly bonds, achieving what seemed impossible and proving forever that man can reach for the stars and succeed.

One Giant Leap: Neil Armstrong's Stellar American Journey, (Paperback) Author: Forge ISBN: 9780312875923 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2005-01-01 Page Count: 320

2. Richter's Scale: Measure of an Earthquake, Measure of a Man (Hardcover)

By developing the scale that bears his name, Charles Richter not only invented the concept of magnitude as a measure of earthquake size, he turned himself into nothing less than a household word. He remains the only seismologist whose name anyone outside of narrow scientific circles would likely recognize. Yet few understand the Richter scale itself, and even fewer have ever understood the man. Drawing on the wealth of papers Richter left behind, as well as dozens of interviews with his family and colleagues, Susan Hough takes the reader deep into Richter's complex life story, setting it in the context of his family and interpersonal attachments, his academic career, and the history of seismology. Among his colleagues Richter was known as intensely private, passionately interested in earthquakes, and iconoclastic. He was an avid nudist, seismologists tell each other with a grin; he dabbled in poetry. He was a publicity hound, some suggest, and more famous than he deserved to be. But even his closest associates were unaware that he struggled to reconcile an intense and abiding need for artistic expression with his scientific interests, or that his apparently strained relationship with his wife was more unconventional but also stronger than they knew. Moreover, they never realized that his well-known foibles might even have been the consequence of a profound neurological disorder. In this biography, Susan Hough artfully interweaves the stories of Richter's life with the history of earthquake exploration and seismology. In doing so, she illuminates the world of earth science for the lay reader, much as Sylvia Nasar brought the world of mathematics alive in A Beautiful Mind.

Richter's Scale: Measure of an Earthquake, Measure of a Man (Hardcover)

3. Sydney Brenner: A Biography, (Hardcover)

Over his long and inspiring career, the Nobel Laureate Sydney Brenner has made some of the most significant and game-changing discoveries in the field of molecular biology. But Brenner's reach has extended well beyond his own research to inspire new generations of young scientists and to promote the development of science and biotechnology around the world. Based on his personal recollections, with contributions and correspondence from his close friends and colleagues, this book tells the lively story, not only of Brenner himself, but of what came to be known as the "golden age" of biology. About the author: Errol C. Friedberg, M.D., is the Senator Betty and Dr. Andy Andujar Distinguished Professor and Chair at the Department of Pathology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. A Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and recipient of the Rous Whipple Award from the American Society for Investigative Pathology, Friedberg also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal DNA Repair. Friedberg is the author of Cancer Answers, Correcting the Blueprint of Life: An Historical Account of the Discovery of DNA Repair Mechanisms, The Writing Life of James D. Watson, and From Rags to Riches: The Phenomenal Rise of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He is also senior author of the textbook DNA Repair & Mutagenesis, and has edited and annotated a series of interviews published as Sydney Brenner: My Life in Science.

Sydney Brenner: A Biography, (Hardcover) Author: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press ISBN: 9780879699475 Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 2010-09-21 Page Count: 334

4. Richter's Scale: Measure of an Earthquake, Measure of a Man (Hardcover - Used)

By developing the scale that bears his name, Charles Richter not only invented the concept of magnitude as a measure of earthquake size, he turned himself into nothing less than a household word. He remains the only seismologist whose name anyone outside of narrow scientific circles would likely recognize. Yet few understand the Richter scale itself, and even fewer have ever understood the man. Drawing on the wealth of papers Richter left behind, as well as dozens of interviews with his family and colleagues, Susan Hough takes the reader deep into Richter's complex life story, setting it in the context of his family and interpersonal attachments, his academic career, and the history of seismology. Among his colleagues Richter was known as intensely private, passionately interested in earthquakes, and iconoclastic. He was an avid nudist, seismologists tell each other with a grin; he dabbled in poetry. He was a publicity hound, some suggest, and more famous than he deserved to be. But even his closest associates were unaware that he struggled to reconcile an intense and abiding need for artistic expression with his scientific interests, or that his apparently strained relationship with his wife was more unconventional but also stronger than they knew. Moreover, they never realized that his well-known foibles might even have been the consequence of a profound neurological disorder. In this biography, Susan Hough artfully interweaves the stories of Richter's life with the history of earthquake exploration and seismology. In doing so, she illuminates the world of earth science for the lay reader, much as Sylvia Nasar brought the world of mathematics alive in A Beautiful Mind.

Title: Richter's Scale: Measure of an Earthquake, Measure of a Man Book Format: Hardcover ISBN10: 0691128073 EAN: 9780691128078 Author: Hough, Susan Elizabeth CONDITION - GOOD - Pre-Owned - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include 'From the library of' labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included.